Pernille Ripp

Sometimes I don’t know why I hit “publish.” Sometimes I shake my head at myself in disbelief; why would I ever want to put “that” out there. Yet I still hit the button, and then I hold my breath a little. Thursday’s post was one of those moments. I wrote it in a few minutes, tears streaming down my face, hit “publish” and hoped to feel a little relief now that the thoughts were out. Brandon, my husband, came home soon after and we talked for a long time about what teaching means to me and feeling like I’m home or not.

I had no idea I was not alone. I had no idea that so many others once again had gone through the exact same thing. That this would make others open up and pour so much love my way. Thank you. Thank you for reaching out to me. To assure me it is normal. To remind me that change can be so very hard yet ultimately so rewarding.

I knew I needed to dig into my students’ heads a little bit, so Friday was a new day and I came in with a survey. I needed answers to help my heart a bit. So I asked them if they felt respected. If they felt their voice mattered. What I could change. What I should keep. I told them that they could remain anonymous if they needed to and then I waited.

Their voices poured forth and with each survey my heart got a little lighter and the ideas started to come back. Even those that confessed to hating English said that they liked me as a teacher. Almost all said that they felt respected and that their voices were heard. That there were great things and things that could be changed.

It wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t as bad as I feared. Yes, there are things for me to work on, there always is, but there was also sparks of kids that felt that the job I do every day matters to them, is making a difference. So while my heart is still heavy with thoughts of what if, my spirit has been renewed a bit. Perhaps as so many said, I wont know right now that I am making a difference, but maybe some day I will. I still don’t know where I ultimately belong, but for now, I am going to embrace where I am.

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA, who has taught 4th, 5th, and 7th grade. Proud techy geek, and mass consumer of incredible books. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, Co-founder of EdCamp MadWI, and believer in all children. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press. Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

being me

When You Feel Misplaced

December 4, 2014December 29, 2014 Pernille Ripp

It seems like I have had more bad days than good in the last few weeks. You probably wouldn’t know that if you knew me though. Us teachers tend to not share too much of the bad. In fact, even if you were in my classroom, you might not even have noticed. I don’t yell. I don’t slam doors. I don’t take it out on students. Instead I get quiet, I reflect, I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder why it is that I feel like I am in a funk?

It dawned on me today as I picked my heart up off the floor; I miss my 5th grade. I miss teaching so many different subjects. I miss the hugs. I miss the stories. I miss the parents randomly stopping by with a forgotten lunch or just because. I miss my old team, even though my new team is incredible. I miss knowing the kids in that way you know them when you have them all day. I miss snack time and read aloud. Our first grade buddies. The excitement that comes with being a 5th grader and being on the cusp of middle school, not knowing what to expect. And did I mention, I miss the hugs?

Yet, I also love 7th grade. I have incredible students. I am part of an incredible school. I would walk through fire for my team. I am surrounded by so many inspiring teachers and I get to teach reading every day. How lucky am I? But, it doesn’t feel like enough. Not tonight. Not this week, for some reason.

So on this day, I wonder where I belong. I wonder where I am supposed to be. I wonder whether it will ever feel like home again. Whether I will ever be anyone’s favorite teacher again. I know it shouldn’t matter but for some reason it does. I wonder if I will make a difference in a middle schoolers life or if I will be just another teacher on their way toward high schooler. I guess I didn’t know how much I just don’t want to be just another teacher. I guess I want to feel like I am making a difference again. I wonder if I made the right choice…

aha moment, being a teacher, student choice

Why I Don’t Want My Students to Fail All of the Time

December 4, 2014 Pernille Ripp

“I want students to fail in my room all the time. I want them to be unafraid of failure.” This was me, all the time. In conversation with other teachers, on Twitter, in blog posts. Always discussing how students should fail. How our rooms should be filled with opportunities to fail. How we should model failing any chance we got.

I assumed this is what students needed; fearlessness in the face of failure, chances to fail every single day. So much failure that they would never be afraid to conquer it or be stymied by it, but instead saw it as a dragon to slay. And then, one day, I said it out loud to my students. And they looked at me in horror. And then they laughed.

“Why do you want us to fail so much, Mrs Ripp?”

“Isn’t that against the rule?”

“Won’t you be a bad teacher if we fail all the time?”

I shrugged it off that day; clearly they had missed the point. Failure wasn’t about me being a bad teacher, if my students failed then it would mean I was doing great things, teaching them great resilience, getting them ready for “real life.”

Yet, the thought kept nagging me late at night when teachers tend to get nagged by thoughts like these. Did I really want my students to fail? Did I really want them to be surrounded by failure so they could develop more grit?

We forget that as adults we would never stick with something if we were constantly failing. That we have to have small successes along the way to keep us going. That some days we need it to be easy so that we can get ready for the next big challenge. We need to be aware of our own fears and we have to work through them. We are not fearless, so why do we expect our students to be?

I realized then that constant failure is not what I want. Nor is fearless students that barge ahead, with little thought, because they have to conquer their fear. I don’t want my students to be surrounded by failure. I do not want them to be fearless in every decision, nor do I want them to constantly have be resilient. That is not “real life.” That is not what we are as adults.

Instead, I want students who will face their own fears and still do it. Students that see their fear of failure and still try. I want students who acknowledge that they are moving into territory that makes them uncomfortable and still stick with it. And I want kids who know where their boundaries are. Who understand their own limits, their own comfort zones. Not so we can burst through the barricades, but instead so we can inch out of it, day by day, expanding ourselves, growing and feeling comfortable with the way we grow.

Failure will always be a constant companion in our classrooms, but they shouldn’t be the driving force. Opportunities should be, challenges should be, with the possibility of failure. We shouldn’t be striving for students who are unafraid to fail, but rather students who are willing to try. Willing to think. Willing to still do something even though they are afraid. That’s “real life.” That’s what we should be modeling.

being a teacher, being me, Passion, students, webinar

The Student’s Voice: Empowering Transformation – A Webinar Recording

December 2, 2014 Pernille Ripp

I had the huge pleasure of discussing student’s voice and how to empower them within a classroom with Tom Murray for the Alliance for Excellent Education on November 17th. To see what other great things the Alliance does, go here.

In this video we discussed

Ideas for including the students’ voice in classroom setup, planning, and outcome
Technology tools to bring the students’ voice out into the world
Stories of how the students’ voice can transform education
New ideas that can be implemented starting today to change the power within our classrooms

behavior, punishment, students

Before You Hang Up That Public Behavior Chart

November 29, 2014November 29, 2014 Pernille Ripp

I have written before about public behavior charts, how I feel about them, what they do to students in my opinion. And while some seem to have found a way to make them work within their environments, I wonder; what if we assumed that all students would have a great day, a great year, and we started off our year without them? No behavior chart prominently hanging greeting the students on the very first day of school?

I think of the message we send on the very first day of school and how it can frame the way a child sees us. I used to go over my behavior chart as one of the very first things of the school year; how to act, what the expectations were and more importantly what the consequences would be. I assumed that my students would need consequences. I assumed they would need punishment. I knew they needed a structure, all people do, but I framed that structure in a negative way hoping for a positive result Why I didn’t see that oxymoron until a few years in, I am not sure.

I am not saying get rid of your behavior systems, not if you’re not ready, but perhaps re-think the assumption that they need to be present from the very first moment of the new year. And while we are battling assumptions, maybe it is time to reconsider whether all children truly benefit from them. Do we really need a behavior chart for every single student in our rooms? I think of my own daughter who works so hard on being good every single day, proudly telling me whenever she gets a compliment from the teacher, and the devastating effect it would have on her if she had to be on “yellow” or “not so great” for the whole world to see. She cares so much about others, sometimes to a fault, that it would wreck her if others thought she was “bad.” Some may say that that is exactly the intended response; for a child to be so mortified that they never do that behavior again. Yet, I wonder if that mortification leads to a break down in relationship?

We all know that student behavior can get better if a child feels safe within our environment. That means safe to learn, safe to try, and yes, safe to have a bad day. When we publicly show the rest of the class that a child is having a bad day and then leave a reminder up, we limit the way a child can process through their actions. Some students will obviously correct their behavior, whereas others will continue down the path of bad decisions since they have already been called out on it. So instead of the public behavior chart, how about a private one? That way a child can still know how they are doing, you can still have the conversations it may spur, but you cut out the public call out, the public humiliation. And what if on the first day of school we didn’t speak of just our own rules, but had the students discuss their rules for the classroom? How about instead of consequences, we spoke of the learning journey?

So before you hang up that public behavior chart, even though it may have room for both great behavior and bad, consider whether every child needs one? Can we accomplish the same privately? Can a compliment mean more to a child than moving their clip? Can a hushed conversation be a better consequence for a child who is making bad choices? Can the same benefits that some see in the charts be reached in a kinder, quieter way? I don’t think it hurts to ask the question.

PS: If you want to read more about what I do now in my classrooms, read here

being a teacher, being me, reflection

What I Take For Granted

November 27, 2014November 27, 2014 Pernille Ripp

I know I have a lot to be thankful for. And yet, it seems to get lost in the every day. The hustle and bustle we call life. I try to be thankful, I try to give thanks, but some of the things I take the most for granted are the things that I forget about. The things that if I didn’t have them in my life, my life would not be a happy one. So why is it that we take so many things for granted when really we should be aware of how different our lives would be without them?

I think of the last few days in the aftermath of the not guilty verdict out of Ferguson and how I take for granted that my white son will never be accosted by police, unless he deserves to be. It’s amazing what you take for granted when you are white.

I think of the millions of children who go to schools that are underfunded, falling apart, and riddled with inequities, and how I take for granted the incredible school my daughter goes to.

The couples who fight to pay their bills every day, whereas my husband and I certainly have to save and budget and not buy, but we are never faced with the choice of heat or water or which one we should pay.

I take that for granted.

Family and friends who get mad when you can’t see them enough because life is too busy and it has been too long.

Ugly mini-vans that are safe to drive in winter and can fit all of our crazy lives.

7th graders who are invested in our classroom, who think I am ok, who don’t hate everything we do.

Colleagues who actually like you and think you have worth.

Plenty of food to eat, to fit even the pickiest 2 year old’s appetite.

Health insurance that doesn’t stop, even when faced with more than $500,000 in medical bills because a baby decided to come 10 weeks early.

I take that for granted.

So today, I am thankful, but not for those big incredible things I get to do, but those essential ones that make my life my life. Those tings I take for grated even though they should be the first in line whenever thanks is given out. What are you thankful for?